Magestorm: The Reckoning

by Chris Fornwalt

  Cassandra stood and walked over to him. They looked into each other’s eyes, the connection they had always shared was still there, and his smirk left. She still wanted to know about the teeth, which was an atrocious thing to do to a vampire, especially since they had been alive when he did it to them. He knew he had to tell her something, so he went with the truth.

  “Revenge, for Lila. And I will feed them to Charles before I kill him.”

  The coldness in his voice gave her a chill. Fear began to fill her, fear that the spell pages he’d been studying had changed him. He was on the path to becoming another Algernon; that had to be it.

  Calmly and sincerely, he smiled and put his arms around her and held her against him. He knew what she was thinking, and she was wrong. Despite everything, he was firmly in control.

  “Don’t worry, I’m not becoming him. I have you to help keep me grounded. But this is not over, and Elisabeth, Heather, Sebastian, they will all pay for the friends they’ve taken from us. Just have faith in me, as you’ve always had, and I will not let you down.”

  She closed her eyes and returned the hug. Relief replaced fear after hearing his honest words, spoken with warmth in his voice. Now, her thoughts of worry for him were replaced with anger towards their enemies. And if Dhane could so easily dispatch this many vampires in a night, maybe they really did have a chance to overcome. Just maybe.

  8

  Two werewolves in human skin stood in an alley shaking their heads. Before them were three vampire bodies, stuffed into a dumpster. It was odd that they were hidden in this way, because it left evidence of their demise. Leaving them in the sunlight would’ve cleaned things up nicely. There would have been nothing but ashes, likely to have blown away in the wind by now. But then, there was another oddity about the bodies.

  “Ever hear of someone pulling the teeth out of vampires?” the man in the Braves baseball cap asked.

  “I heard a rumor about someone doing that a long time ago. He’s dead though, at least he’s supposed to be.”

  “Don’t even say that name. It’s obvious who did this.”

  The man with a ponytail and goatee turned to his sports-fan friend and cocked a smile. It was only to try and hide his nervousness. The great wizard was long dead, but it appeared his son could be taking up the mantle now. If that was the case, it wasn’t a good proposition for anyone, least of all those who had driven him into hiding.

  “We need to report back immediately. Sebastian will want to see this first hand.”

  They closed the lid and headed down the alley. Changing to werewolves often meant they had to ditch their clothes, so they didn’t carry cell phones. These days, phone booths were getting very hard to find. Eventually they stopped at a motel and slipped inside. Finding a phone within, they dialed the Grand Hotel quickly.

  “Sebastian? It’s Teddy. We found three of the missing vampires. No, they’re dead. They were de-fanged. Yeah, you heard me right. They’re in an alley off of Pyre Street. Okay, we’ll see what else we can find.”

  He hung up and shook his head to his partner. They got a room at the motel and headed back out on the hunt. This time they searched for Dhane, or any member of his group. By noon, they would be joined by a half dozen other werewolves, and nightfall would bring waves of vampires. If Dhane was anywhere in the area, he would be found.

  “Who was that?” Rachel asked Sebastian suspiciously.

  “The search party I sent out. They found some of the missing vampires, dead. Their fangs were ripped from their mouths.”

  “Jesus Christ! Was it...?”

  The look he gave her was all she needed to know. A curse escaped her as she sat down. This was the reason they were still hunting for the others. They needed to be sure he was dead, so he couldn’t come back with the strength of Algernon, or maybe even greater strength. It seemed their time may be up; how could he grow powerful enough to take them on without the spell book? Sebastian grabbed a jacket and a duffel bag, threw in a couple changes of clothes, and headed for the door.

  “I’m going to let Elisabeth know what’s going on, and then get out there with more men. I need to deal with this first hand.”

  She nodded and waited for him to leave. After ten minutes, she hurried back to the bedroom and pulled out a laptop computer. It was the first chance she had alone since their last sexual romp, and she needed to check on something. Pulling up a video player, she activated the playback on a security camera. Anger rose to fury as she watched her lover fuck another woman, and not just any woman, but the head of their group now.

  “You son of a bitch!”

  Slamming the laptop closed, she had to force herself not to go confront Elisabeth. By the looks of the video, this wasn’t the first time, and was likely not going to be the last. He was going to pay for this, even if it killed her. That whore would get what was coming to her, too. Hell, fury, woman scorned and all of that.

  “Elisabeth,” Sebastian loudly beat on the door of the suite with his fist. The door swung open and the witch flashed a sly smile.

  “Back for more already?”

  “I wish.”

  He stepped inside and closed the door. Tossing his duffel on floor, he sat in a chair wondering just how she was going to take this. There was no sugar coating it, however. There simply wasn’t time.

  “Some of the vampires have been found. I believe Dhane killed them and left them for us to find. We need to start a full scale search of that area immediately.”

  “WHAT? Tell me you’re joking. That boy killed off vampires?”

  The werewolf nodded his head. Elisabeth picked up a phone and dialed a set of numbers quickly. A voice answered and she directed the person to report immediately. For almost ten minutes she paced around the room anxiously, until finally Charles was knocking at the front door. She swung the door open, and then started pacing again.

  “What is so important? I sleep during the day, you know.” Then he noticed Sebastian sitting in a chair and rolled his eyes. “Let me guess, you decided your wolves are too busy to search for missing vampires.”

  “No, they found your vampires,” Sebastian responded as he stood and walked over to stand face-to-face with the vampire prince, though he was nearly a foot taller than his counterpart. “Problem is, they were de-fanged and killed.”

  “Say that again...” His heart began to race and his face filled with fury.

  “Calm down Charles, we’re dispatching more werewolves there immediately. When night falls, we need your vampires swarming the area, searching for any signs of the mage. We have to hit this full force.”

  Without responding, Charles stormed out of the room. The other two looked at each other with confusion. All Sebastian could do is shrug.

  “If he’s not willing to send his own people, why should I send mine?”

  Charles returned suddenly, wearing a necklace that Sebastian immediately recognized. It was the same necklace the vampire’s brother, Victor, had worn when he come to see the werewolf and make their current alliance.

  “I’m coming now; the others will follow at nightfall.

  Sebastian grabbed his bag and Charles followed him out the door, down to the lobby, where more werewolves were standing by, ready for the hunt. Once they were gone, Elisabeth went back to the vault and grabbed the spell book. She wasn’t letting the book out of her sight right now, just in case Dhane really was hunting them. At least with this she had an advantage over him.

  9

  The four outcasts moved into a small motel well to the Northeast of where their cabins had been. Despite the assault Dhane had launched to throw the others off their trail, the group was not about to stay put and risk being surprised by their enemies.

  “Are you all set for the night?”

  Samantha looked curiously at the mage. Clearly he was planning on heading out again, but the sun was about to set, and surely the vampires would be out in force. There would be no stopping him, though. Now that his nose was out of the spell book pa
ges, he seemed different.

  “I’m good, but what are you going to do?”

  “The vampires should be scrambling about now. I need to go and see exactly what effect I’ve had on them. It will only take a couple of hours.”

  “Dhane, how did you know where to find the other vampire patrols?”

  With a smirk, grabbed his jacket off a chair and pulled it on. Thinking for several minutes about exactly what to tell her, he decided now wasn’t the right time for the truth.

  “Let’s just say I have a friend keeping an eye on things.”

  That was all he would give her before heading out the door. The dark would be good cover, but if they had found the vampire bodies he left, the patrols around town would be much heavier.

  It was almost midnight when he reached his location. A cemetery on the outskirts of Thauma was open enough to spot anyone approaching, and nobody visited here in the middle of the night. After ten minutes of waiting, his inside source arrived, climbing from a manhole before casually strolling up to Dhane.

  “Hello, Demian. How does the evening find you?”

  “Very well, very well. Did I do good with my directions?”

  “Excellent. I found the patrols no problem. Left them a message too, which should stir things up. Funny how everyone has forgotten about you, lurking right beneath their feet. I hope you’re being careful though. If they catch you...”

  “Oh they won’t, they won’t. I am too clever for them. In and out I go, where I stop, none of them know.”

  Demian gave a smile as he spouted his little rhyme and Dhane had to laugh. They started walking through the graveyard, glancing around periodically to ensure they were still alone as they talked further.

  “What are they doing now?”

  “Many went to search the East, looking for you. They all know it was you.”

  “Good. I want them afraid, so when I march through the front door, they don’t even want to fight; they just want to run away.”

  As they continued to talk, a figure moved in the shadows, hiding behind gravestones. The person was trying to get close enough to find out what was going on.

  “I wanted to thank you again for copying the book like that. I know it was a lot of work, but you really saved the day. You’ve been a good friend, and I know you were to my father as well, before his madness. I’m just sorry I can’t take away what was done to you.”

  “No, do not even think of that. I move on, you move on, we all move on. I...”

  Without breaking stride or showing any signs of spotting the intruder, the vampire’s superior eyesight tracked the figure in the dark shadows. Once he had a good bead on the person, he elbowed Dhane gently.

  “We have a visitor, unwelcome visitor.”

  “Can you tell who it is?”

  “No. I think it’s a woman, by her size and hair length. Can’t see the face though. Not a werewolf, or I could smell the blood clearly from here.”

  All Dhane could think was Heather. Surely that crazy stalker bitch had found him to torment him further. If it was her, God help her. This wasn’t the warm and fuzzy, weak Dhane she knew before. And her past transgressions were not forgotten.

  “Let’s shake hands and you head for the sewer. If she follows me, you should be able to get the jump on her. Don’t kill her though. If it’s Heather, I want to deal with her myself.”

  A nod and handshake later Dhane was working his way back through the graveyard, this time headed towards the West. He wasn’t going to give even a hint of the direction he came from, just in case the spy got away.

  He reached the edge of the cemetery and was about to jump the fence when he heard a shriek. Demian had caught her. Rushing over to where they were struggling on the ground, he was disappointed to find that it wasn’t Heather.

  “Samantha? What are you doing out here?”

  “I had to see where you were going, and make sure you didn’t get yourself killed. Since when are you working with a vampire?”

  Shaking his head, he helped her up with a curse.

  “Give me a couple minutes.”

  He stepped away with the vampire, far enough for her not to hear. There was one thing further he needed to know about, and he only hoped his friend might have the answer.

  “What do you know of that monster Elisabeth is using?”

  “Oh, yes, that thing. You know your father was using vampire blood, seeking a cure for so long. He did many things, many different things, and that was one of the results.”

  “Algernon created that thing?”

  “Yes, it was one of his more successful attempts, if you call that thing a success. Monster was linked with the great wizard, commanded without words, only thoughts. The vampires took the creature when Algernon was dispatched. Figured he belonged to them since he was made using their blood. Until now, he had been stored away, far away.”

  “Interesting. That must be why he looked at me that way.”

  “What way?” Demian looked at him curiously.

  Dhane smiled.

  “The same way you did the first time you saw me.”

  Dhane thanked him and said a real farewell this time. He glanced disappointingly towards Samantha and started walking towards the motel without saying a word. Angry, she caught back up to him and grabbed his arm.

  “You are not going to keep me in the dark, us in the dark. We are your friends and we’re going through this whole thing too. You’re not the only one who lost Lila. You’re not the only one who is being hunted.”

  Tears started down her cheeks and he grabbed her and pulled her close. Caught up in his own plans for revenge, he hadn’t thought about how the others were dealing with this whole mess. Samantha was right; he needed to let them in.

  “Let’s get back to the room and I’ll explain everything in the morning, to all of you.”

  With a head nod, she composed herself and started walking with him. For the longest, neither said another word. Finally Dhane decided to let her in on who Demian was. It was an odd conversation, trying to explain how the vampire had been a close friend of Algernon.

  Of course, that led to other questions, with all of the other vampires hating Dhane’s father. The whole story of Algernon and Marissa would have to wait until morning though. They finally rounded a corner and the motel was just ahead.

  They went inside the room and Samantha plopped down on her twin bed. She wondered if she would be able to sleep at all now. So many questions were running through her head, it was beginning to pound. Too bad they didn’t have any aspirin.

  The mage slipped off his shoes and socks and sat on his bed across from his friend. He knew he should probably tell her more, so she could understand things better. That conversation would have to happen with Cassandra and Amber tomorrow though, so better to tell the story to all of them at once.

  “Are you okay?” He finally asked when she didn’t move for several minutes.

  “I’m just... it’s so weird. Things were supposed to be better here. Cassandra was building a great society of our kind, and now it’s just... it’s all gone.”

  “I think the first problem was the separation of our kind from the others. United, the three groups have control of Thauma and are hunting us. We tried to stay apart, like we were somehow better than them, to police them. I think, if we had solidified with the others, we wouldn’t be in this situation. Our relationships would’ve given us stronger numbers to withstand a few rogues. Now the rogues are the ones with all the power.”

  “You may be right.” She got up and walked over and sat down next to him. “Do you think things will ever get better?”

  Dhane nodded, though he wasn’t sure he believed it. Instead, he thought things would take a dramatic turn soon, and either they would get a foothold again, or collapse completely. Running was the best option for Xander and Nicole, Cassandra and Amber. At least they had a chance at real lives. He put his arm around her and she laid her head on his shoulder.

  “I’m going to
do whatever I can to see to it. You just have to be patient.”

  She looked up at him, eyes full of sorrow. “I believe you.”

  Gently, she brushed her lips against his, kissing him.

  10

  Elisabeth stood in the park and glanced around the neighborhood. This didn’t feel right. Somehow, she was sure Dhane wasn’t here. Nonetheless, Charles and Sebastian had their troops searching every alley for any sign of the mage.

  “We’re getting nowhere. It had to be Dhane or one of the werewolves that did that to my vampires.”

  “Yes Charles, I’m sure it was. We can’t get payback if we can’t find him though. I’ll double up the patrols and we’ll expand further from this spot. If he shows his face, we’ll grab him.”

  Charles wasn’t really satisfied with that answer, but he didn’t have a choice. At least the increase in patrols would put Sebastian’s wolves in harm’s way just as much as his vampires. Maybe they would look harder when it was their own kind missing. He marched off to lead his people in their search, noting that failure was not an option.

  “Did that take care of him?”

  “Yes, Sebastian. You are going to deliver the extra patrols, correct?”

  “Possibly. I may need a little...persuading though.”

  The flash of a dirty look came across her face as he winked and smiled. Busy with their flirtation, they didn’t realize they were being watched by more than one interested party.

  Heather watched from a rooftop nearby, the voices echoing up to her like sweet music. She, too, was sure Dhane had killed the vampires, and that made her mind race. Perhaps he was finally turning into the man she wanted, she needed. Turning around, four vampires stood silently, waiting for orders.

  “If they increase patrols, then that will mean a decrease in security around the Grand. Undoubtedly this is when Dhane will strike, trying to retrieve the spell books. That is when you will grab him.”